Ireland, Day 3

Ireland, Day 3, was considerably better than Day 1! We spent a lovely day in Galway, a bit of a tour, some visit to cathedral and churches, some food, of course, on a beautiful sunny day, the kind of day we needed for the Cliffs of Moher.

Then we went to St. Nicholas Collegiate Church four whole blocks from our hotel for a rehearsal/sound check, and what a sound check. St. Nick’s, not overly large, has a terrifically resonant acoustic, and we just reveled in the sound. But what about when an audience came? And would an audience come?

Well, come they did. The church was almost full and the acoustics did indeed change, but for the better for the audience; it reduced some of the over-resonance and they could hear our words.

And we sang. It was our best audience ever on a tour, and I think we rose to the occasion and sang one of our best concerts ever on a tour. With 22 singers we were able to fill that space with sound.

Of course everyone loved the spirituals and the other loud pieces where we made the rafters ring, but this audience clearly appreciated what I call APM’s meat, the sensitive, mushy settings of beautiful poems, like “Earth Song” and “Sing Me to Heaven.” There was an audible sigh at the end of “Sing Me” and very warm applause. And soprano soloist Paige Griggs let her high notes ring in that space and she sounded absolutely glorious. We heard many many comments after from audience members, all warm and gracious and positive.

There was a small, funny incident with a pigeon hopping around near us while we sang. I just assumed that it wanted to hear us sing. I’ve heard that our sopranos sing like birds…

It was a fine musical start. And best of all, it was followed by traditional Irish music and even Irish dancing at one of the 700 pubs on the block. And, of course, there was Guinness.